The Betfair Hurdle, run over 2 miles at
Newbury, is as ‘deep’ a race as you’ll find anywhere outside
the Cheltenham Festival. Indeed, winners at 50/1, 33/1, 20/1, 16/1,
14/1 and 12/1 – interestingly, accompanied by three favourites and
a joint favourite – in the last ten renewals bear testament to just
how competitive it is.
Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins
sets punters a thorny puzzle by saddling five, including the ante
post favourite, Blazer (4/1) but, as ever, we’ll be concentrating
our efforts on the other end of the market.
The first one that takes our eye is
Alan King’s 9-year-old Montbazon (50/1), who returns to
action after an absence of 574 days. Regardless of any form
considerations, the Barbury Castle trainer must surely have been able
to find a less competitive race for a horse that has been off the
course for over 18 months, so the fact that the Alberto Giacometti
gelding lines up at all is interesting. The pick of his form is a
third, beaten 1½ lengths, behind Lac Fontana in the County Hurdle at
the Cheltenham Festival two seasons ago and, off an identical
handicap mark, he clearly has a chance if able to reproduce that
performance. His sole effort on heavy going was poor, so any more
rain in the South East could scupper his chance.
Waxies Dargle (40/1) remains 4lb
higher in the weights than when finishing third of 17, beaten 6
lengths, behind Old Guard in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in
November, but would still be quite a strong fancy for this had he not
run a couple of ‘stinkers’ at Ascot and Leopardstown in the
meantime. He was, frankly, too bad to be true on both occasions and
it’s hard to imagine Noel Meade sending him across the Irish Sea
again unless what was ailing him is now in the past. If it is, he
could go very well at a daft price.
Selections: Newbury 3.35
Montbazon (50/1), Waxies Dargle (40/1)
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